Archive for July, 2012

44 Presidents, 20 Students, 12 Days

Our third production by The NOLA Project has already opened and closed, and they did it with 20 students in 12 days. Jeff gets to the bottom of it with their Artistic Director, A.J. Allegra.

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Jeff Mosser: You put this up at a breakneck pace! How did you do it?

A.J. Allegra: Our total cast is 20 and the interesting thing is that it’s 17 girls and 3 boys. We did it… 12 days [minus auditions and Thursday & Friday’s performance]. They take classes from 9:00-12:00, then lunch, and from 12:30-4:00 they have rehearsal for the show. I’m very impressed with how they handle the material. The oldest kid we have is 17 and the youngest was 11 turning 12. Across the board they’ve handled the language with adeptness, and we’ve tried to talk about the history of each one.

JM: Did you give your props designer leg up?

AA: We have the best props guy, Michael. He loves building things rather than buying. I think my favorite prop is the money fan. It’s absurdly large. (more…)

Wayne State University Brings Detroit into the Festival!

You can’t have a national Festival of anything without Detroit, Michigan. That’s just a fact. Detroit is a metonym  for the American auto industry and the automobile, historically speaking, is an American icon.

But then I also say, you can’t bring Detroit into a national Festival unless it’s represented by Wayne State University. Thankfully, that’s what we got.

Founded in 1868, Wayne State University is a nationally recognized (and HUGE) metropolitan research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.

And lucky for us they also have a theatre department.

Over the years, WSU theatres have been awarded the prestigious Governor’s Arts Organization Award as well as frequent honors from Detroit’s major newspapers, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, including “Theatre of the Year,” “Best Play,” “Best Director,” and many individual awards for members of the graduate company.

WSU has chosen Rutherford B. Hayes, the President whose shifty election inspired a CNN analyst one day to compare it to the 2000 election. Watching that broadcast was a young man who became suddenly inspired to create a show called 43 Plays for 43 Presidents. And later a Festival. Thanks Hayes!

And thank you, WSU. Detroit is represented and we couldn’t be more excited to have you in the ranks!

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Presidents as Inspiration

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- Abraham Lincoln

One of the jobs of the President, it seems, is to inspire action. They are a celebrity-level change agent and – in many ways – become the hoped-for mouthpiece of the electorate. We want them to say aloud the things we cannot say. We want them to push change and shape the course of our nation in ways that are progressive, constructive, and powerful. At least… I’m assuming that’s what “we the people” want. I’m sure some would disagree.

We’ve entered a stage in our political growth rife with compeeting ideologies and highly divergent proposed responses to events and elements that will change not only our immediate experiences, but also the lives of future generations. Education. Violence (both domestic and international). Economics and finance. Food shortages. Climate change. Energy dependence.

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An Audience’s Perspective, or What My Parents Thought of the Show

So far we’ve heard from directors, teachers, producers, and marketers, but we haven’t heard from any audience members — much less, parents. Jeff Mosser less-than-discretely interviewed his parents about Theatre Pro Rata’s show.

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Jeff Mosser: So you made it up and back to Minneapolis allright? How was the show?

Dad: I liked it. The only thing I didn’t like was that it was so darned hot down there. Luckily they had a few fans or I’da been in trouble.

Mom: I told the director who we were and oh they knew you! She worked with you when you were living in Minneapolis, and she got excited and took us on a tour of where the bathrooms were.

JM: What was your favorite moment of the show?

Mom: Well it probably would have been the death of JFK because people our age all remember where we were when we heard that. We heard it at one o’clock when we were on our way back to work. Terrible, terrible shock. They did a really good job. It was somber.

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Do some votes mean more than others?

This week, Paul Begala argued that the upcoming election would be decided by fewer than 1 million American voters. The reason being that when you take the Electoral College into consideration, the key deciding votes cast in that process will come from 6 states currently considered “swing” states.

His argument includes the suggestion that if you are in one of the 44 states currently not considered a swing state (including Alaska, California, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Texas), you should not even bother participating. Rather, he says, “your vote essentially doesn’t matter.”

With which I take issue.

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City Lights’ and Notre Dame’s Theatrical Partnership

City Lights Theater Company and Notre Dame High School of San Jose have a unique relationship. Derek McCaw and Kit Wilder help shed some light on it!

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Jeff Mosser: Derek, can you tell me a little bit about Notre Dame?

Derek McCaw: It’s the oldest girls’ school west of the Mississippi. We’re in the 162nd year of this school. Since I’ve been there we’ve kind of struck a niche in the area for doing edgier theatre pieces. We’re committed to social justice and critical thinking! We have the support of the administration to have our dramatic selections reflect the school’s mission. We like being on the edge with these kinds of things. 44 Plays is just right in line with us. This is exactly the kind of thing we’d like to do. It’s fun, it pokes fun at history, and the social studies department can really get into it too. The timing is perfect! We’ll play a week before this year’s election, so it will definitely be on our students’ minds! This is a fun way to talk about it.

JM: Kit, can you tell me about City Lights?

Kit Wilder: It has carved itself a niche in the past 10 years, with Lisa [City Lights’ Executive Artistic Director], as being the theatre that does more uncommon works. Newer works, issue oriented, etcetera. Not to say that we aren’t doing work that’s entertaining. If the story is worth telling then we’re going to want to do it. What’s worth telling more than the history of the US presidency, especially in a humorous vein? And especially right now?  That’s what we do – building connections between the past and the present. (more…)

The Importance of Interconnection

Hopefully this seems a genuine statement to everyone involved in the Festival thus far, but we – the Plays for Presidents Campaign staff – really want to talk to you.

This is true of producers, actors, audience members… we want to hear from you! We want to talk to you. We want to be helpful and provide useful tidbits… to create an open source experience as you mount, perform, experience, and process the show. And more importantly – what everything that goes beyond the play (because, after all – that’s really the heart of it) means. What it leads to.

Want sound cues and slides? We got ‘em! Want to get ideas for creative projects or riffs you can explore? We’re happy to brainstorm! Have specific questions about local and/or national marketing efforts? We’ve got stuff ready for ya!

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The Mid-run Insight of Theatre Pro Rata

Jeff Mosser catches up with our only 4th of July production at Theatre Pro Rata.  Carin Bratlie and Grant Henderson lend their mid-run insight.

Jeff Mosser: You’re into your first weekend so things are getting ironed out. What’s the response like?

Grant Henderson: Overall we’ve gotten really good response. From the last show we had a company member in the audience and he said that Kennedy really got a buzz going.

Carin Bratlie: I’m surprised that I see audiences get misty eyed. Also, the emotional response is much stronger with modern Presidents, because people have their own opinions of those Presidents… they either love or hate them.

JM: That’s interesting knowing how non-partisan the show is.

CB: We have a very proactive and politically minded audience.

JM: Were there any parts of the show that weren’t rehearsed for?

CB: One of the things that struck me after we had an audience in the room was how much the audience was an additional character. They’re really much more vocal than an ordinary show.  We set it in this rinky-dink church basement, like a caucus location, a place where we hash out our civic duty, and that has pulled things out in the audience.

GH: Yea, I think we also lead the audience with that right away as we’re milling about in the beginning, because we’re just there with them right from the top. Everyone is in their own clothes– there’s no artifice of “now I’m a character.” There’s no backstage, so it’s a declaration of having no fourth wall. We’re all in the show together and then it just starts.

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Karen Weinberg Shares a Smashing Vision

Karen Weinberg, Video Wrangler (and co-author!)

This week I interviewed staff team member Karen Weinberg – a 44 Plays for 44 Presidents co-author and official Festival Video Wrangler! 

What drew you to being involved as a team member in the Festival?

I liked the idea of “getting the band back together” and also approaching the show from a very different angle – managing the video component. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all comes together with so many different contributors. I’m excited to see how the different producing entities approach their videos, and it will be a fun challenge to weave them together into a single virtual festival experience.

Do you think it’s different — helpful, weird, fun, etc. — to be both a writer of the play and one of the key Festival staff?

To me, being a co-author and now festival Video Wrangler is like watching my kids grow up. We content creators tend to see our works as our “babies,” and I feel so proud and happy this baby is getting the chance to mature and grow. (more…)

Portrait of the President as a Young Man.

Posted on: by Bilal 1 Comment

In the third grade, I was handed a book that contained 4-5 page histories of the American presidents, and I read this book over and over for as long as it held together, fascinated with the very concept of presidents as individuals. At the time I’d received this book, I had been alive for the presidencies of Carter and Reagan, but not cognizant of the former’s tenure before he’d lost the office, so for all practical purposes Reagan had been president for my entire life. Somehow, I’d just internalized the idea that all American presidents were more or less like Reagan, albeit with different situations to handle in the same way that Reagan had to handle them. The presidency, in my immature estimation, subsumed one’s personality. Every man who had the job had to do the job first, and be the man they were second.

This is one of many reasons you do not let third graders vote.

Obsessed as I was with the stories of each president beyond the well-learned legends of Washington and Lincoln, I checked out other books from the library, trying to find facts I’d missed previously. One of these books included the full-color, official portraits of the men who had held the office. Almost all of these portraits seemed the same to me–steadfast, noble-looking white men in dark suits and the collars of the time period, sitting or standing in front of either a black background or the wall of a White House chamber.

Except for Kennedy’s. (more…)